Legendary order of spiritual knights known as ‘Bheeshma’ is the final hope of Devarth federation, as they face imminent invasion and subjugation by Daityan empire. In order to wield the ancient weapon 'Pinaka' against central seat of Daityan power (the indestructible citadels of Tripura), warrior monk Haŕa (Shiva) needs to undertake an arduous and dangerous journey to the mysterious Mount Kailash. Battling his grief over a personal tragedy as well as many self-doubts and fears, he must cross the barrier of death itself and face the spiritual personae of Lord Rudŕa…Traversing through many exotic ancient places like Amaravati, the capital city of Dev Lok and Atalantpuri, the capital of Atala (Atlantis), this epic adventure story also attempts to unfold the philosophy of Yoga and Vedanta.Background Theme of the Book:-While it’s not an exact retelling, this story takes inspiration from ancient scriptures of India, especially about Lord Shiva’s role as Tripurantaka - destroyer of the triple cities of Tripura. The scripture known as Shiva-Puran actually describe Tripura to be built on large mobile platforms high up among the clouds. Highly advanced in terms of technology, these city structures defied gravity and could even fly across the skies around the planet, like orbiting space stations. It’s said that the prosperous occupants of these sky-cities had eventually degenerated to decadence, greed, arrogance and violence, which led to their destruction by Shiva. In many ways, the story of ‘Tripura’ from Indian mythology is also similar to that of ‘Atlantis’ from Greek mythology.

    "Conveys a world that is spiritual, foreign, and entirely accessible."--Vanity Fair. Reading tour.

    The Empress of India Mumtaz Mahal has died. Yet, rather than anoint one of his several other wives to take her place as Empress of India, Mughal King Shah Jahan anoints his seventeen-year-old daughter Jahanara as the next Queen of India. Bearing an almost identical resemblance to her mother, Jahanara is the first ever daughter of a sitting Mughal King to be anointed queen. She is reluctant to accept this title, but does so in hopes of averting the storm approaching her family and Mughal India. Her younger siblings harbor extreme personalities from a liberal multiculturalist (who views religion as an agent of evil) to an orthodox Muslim (who views razing non-Muslim buildings as divine will).Meanwhile, Jahanara struggles to come to terms with her own dark reality: as the daughter of a sitting King, she is forbidden to marry. Thus, while she lives in the shadow of her parents unflinching love story, she is devastated by the harsh reality that she is forbidden to share such a romance with another. Mistress of the Throne narrates the powerful story of one of Indias most opulent and turbulent times through the eyes of an unsuspecting character: a Muslim queen. It uses actual historical figures to illuminate the complexity of an era that has often been called Indias Golden Age.

    With refreshingly open-minded curiosity, William Dalrymple explores the seven "dead" cities of Delhi as well as the eighth city-today's Delhi. Underlying his quest is the legend of the djinns, fire-formed spirits that are said to assure the city's Phoenix-like regeneration no matter how many times it is destroyed. Entertaining, fascinating, and informative, City of Djinns is an irresistible blend of research and adventure.

    Set in modern-day India, it is the story of two compelling and achingly real women: Sera Dubash, an upper-middle-class Parsi housewife whose opulent surroundings hide the shame and disappointment of her abusive marriage, and Bhima, a stoic illiterate hardened by a life of despair and loss, who has worked in the Dubash household for more than twenty years.

    But when their firstborn son dies in a terrible accident, tragedy transforms their marriage into a bleak landscape. As the pair starts fresh in a heartbroken old villa by the sea, they are joined by Nandini, a dazzling and devious artist with a trace of leopard blood in her veins. While Nandini flamboyantly takes on Bombay’s art scene, the couple attempts to mend their marriage, eventually discovering that real love, mercurial and many-hued, is given and received in silence. Sensuous and electric, achingly moving and wickedly funny, The Last Song of Dusk is a tale of fate that will haunt your heart like an old and beloved song.“A cornucopia of life at full tilt and high color . . . Shanghvi–who’s been compared to Arundhati Roy, Zadie Smith, and Vikram Seth–combines ribald humor with prose poetry.”–Sunday Oregonian“Few first novelists achieve such perfection, such control, in their performance.”–India Today“A gorgeous novel . . . written with a youthful twinkling eye.”–Los Angeles Times Book Review“Lush, witty . . . sassy prose . . . moves like a carnival ride.”–San Francisco Chronicle

    The issue of Kashmir still is a crucial issue discussed across forums in the global arena and is one of the major hindrances in improving relationship with India’s neighbour and kin of one time. Much has been written about Kashmir and the separatist movement in Kashmir. But the beautifully scripted account of the brutality with which the separatist movement is carried on till date has no precedence. The book, Curfewed Nights, gives an honest, crude, and truthful account of what goes on in the paradise of India which is under the spell of the separatist movement.The author of the book, Basharat Peer, being a Kashmiri himself has related to each and every detail provided in the book from the first hand experiences gathered by him. Since independence of India, many Kashmiri youths have been mesmerised by the terrorism to the extent that they want to join the terrorist organisations even without thinking about their families or themselves. They have illusioned godfathers in the leaders of such terrorist outfits. In fact, the author was sent out of Kashmir by his family, just to keep him away from these painful romances with the militants.The book, Curfewed Night, has a lot of heart-rending accounts of how a mother watches her son who is forced to hold an exploding bomb or how a poet discovers his religion when his entire family is killed or how the politicians are tortured inside the refurbished torture chambers or how villages have been rigged with landmines which kills innocent civilians, and how temples have converted into army bunkers while ancient Sufi shrines have been decapitated in bomb blasts.

    Just into his twentieth year, Akbar readies himself to emerge from behind the veil and stake his claim to the Mughal throne. But the figure of his regent, Bairam Khan, looms large in his path. After an exchange of blows and wits, Bairam Khan is subdued. Akbar forgives him, and forces upon him a pilgrimage to Mecca. On the eve of his departure, Bairam Khan is found murdered in his chamber. With the help of Mahesh Das — a Brahmin who Akbar has befriended — Akbar must find out who killed Bairam Khan. But in the insidious Mughal court — a hotbed of intrigue and suspicion — danger lurks at every step. One false step could cost them their lives.

    That left my final hope, the new wordkeeper."Anya’s carefree teenage life is thrown into turmoil when her mother is abducted, passing on the mantle of wordkeeper to her. Her only ally for this task is a cursed immortal warrior.In another part of the country, village boy Bilal dismisses tales about a prophecy claiming he is a messiah … until the day his dearest friend is killed in a case of mistaken identity.Anya and Bilal need to find each other so they can fufil the old prophecy and destroy their common enemy, the vengeful god who pursues them.The first of a trilogy, this book takes you on a breathtaking journey of fantasy and adventure, through modern cities, ancient cremation grounds, mythical planets and mystical mountains.

    Segregated and shunned from society, often wretchedly poor, theirs is a lot that nobody would willingly espouse. Yet thats exactly what Phiroze Elchidana, son of a revered Parsi priest, does when he falls in love with Sepideh, the daughter of an aging corpse bearer...Derived from a true story, Cyrus Mistrys extraordinary new novel is a moving account of tragic love that, at the same time, brings to vivid and unforgettable life the degradation experienced by those who inhabit the unforgiving margins of history.

    In the suburban streets of Calcutta where they wandered before dusk and in the hyacinth-strewn ponds where they played for hours on end, Udayan was always in his older brother's sight. So close in age, they were inseparable in childhood and yet, as the years pass - as U.S tanks roll into Vietnam and riots sweep across India - their brotherly bond can do nothing to forestall the tragedy that will upend their lives. Udayan - charismatic and impulsive - finds himself drawn to the Naxalite movement, a rebellion waged to eradicate inequity and poverty. He will give everything, risk all, for what he believes, and in doing so will transform the futures of those dearest to him: his newly married, pregnant wife, his brother and their parents. For all of them, the repercussions of his actions will reverberate across continents and seep through the generations that follow. Epic in its canvas and intimate in its portrayal of lives undone and forged anew, The Lowland is a deeply felt novel of family ties that entangle and fray in ways unforeseen and unrevealed, of ties that ineluctably define who we are. With all the hallmarks of Jhumpa Lahiri's achingly poignant, exquisitely empathetic story-telling, this is her most devastating work of fiction to date.

    When the beautiful and lonely lady of the manor invites him to stay and share a story, his grief at the destruction of his glorious city spills forth in a story of two brothers, Taka and Wara - wolf and boy - a tale of love and loyalty, hurt and distrust. The storyteller is amazed when the lady, or Begum, responds with a tale of her own, of Aresh and Barab, and a friendship that transcends death. Transfixed by their storytelling duel and shocked by the discovery of forbidden love, the pair draw out their stories in order to delay the moment of their parting. Part fable, part fantasy, The Storyteller's Tale captures the twilight of the Mughals and transports the reader to the stunning setting of an unforgettable brief encounter. Adapting ancient traditions of storytelling, skilfully weaving history and the lives of ordinary people in a landscape of war and devastation, Ahmad's finely drawn tale draws from the great folklore traditions of One Thousand and One Nights and the Tales of Genji.

    Burton’s translation of The Kama Sutra remains one of the best English interpretations of this early Indian treatise on politics, social customs, love, and intimacy. Its crisp style set a new standard for Sanskrit translation.The Kama Sutra stands uniquely as a work of psychology, sociology, Hindu dogma, and sexology. It has been a celebrated classic of Indian literature for 1,700 years and a window for the West into the culture and mysticism of the East.This Modern Library Paperback Classic reprints the authoritative text of Sir Richard F. Burton’s 1883 translation.

    His friends go to Yale and Harvard. August himself has just landed a prize government job. The job takes him to Madna, “the hottest town in India,” deep in the sticks. There he finds himself surrounded by incompetents and cranks, time wasters, bureaucrats, and crazies. What to do? Get stoned, shirk work, collapse in the heat, stare at the ceiling. Dealing with the locals turns out to be a lot easier for August than living with himself. English, August is a comic masterpiece from contemporary India. Like A Confederacy of Dunces and The Catcher in the Rye, it is both an inspired and hilarious satire and a timeless story of self-discovery.

    Virmati, a young woman born in Amritsar into an austere and high-minded household, falls in love with a neighbour, the Professor--a man who is already married. That the Professor eventually marries Virmati, installs her in his home (alongside his furious first wife) and helps her towards further studies in Lahore, is small consolation to her scandalised family. Or even to Virmati, who finds that the battle for her own independence has created irrevocable lines of partition and pain around her.